Guerrero – Briefs: Detention of FODEG member, Raúl Hernández recieved threats and announcement of the commemoration of the massacre at Aguas Blancas

On the morning of June 21, Bertoldo Martínez Cruz, member of the Front of Democratic Organizations of the state of Guerrero (FODEG), was accused of alleged robbery and other grievances by the City Council of Ayutla. He was released later that same day after it was demonstrated that his arrest was based on charges that Attorney General of Guerrero had retired in 2001. However, Bertoldo Martinez, who is also the coordinator of the Collective Against Torture and Impunity (CCIC), said that his detention “was not a mistake” and that in fact it was ordered three months ago. Bertoldo Martínez has been known as a member of the social struggle since 1973, when he was a political prisoner and tortured during the last years of the 90s, for his work against impunity in the case of Aguas Blancas. In a press conference, the Governor of Guerrero, Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo, denied that his government has criminalized social struggle and affirmed that they will continue to detain people with arrest warrants against them.

On the 22nd of June, Amnesty International (AI) released an Urgent Action in support of the prisoner of conscience, Raúl Hernández, who had recieved threats from inmates in the jail of Ayutla de los Libres. In the Urgent Action, AI asked the authorities to provide protection to Raúl Hernández and requested again his immediate release for having been detained unjustly. Moreover, Raúl Hernández, through the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center of the Montaña, sent a letter to the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ), on 21 June. In his letter, Hernández requested that the TSJ end the process with a fast and just sentence, in consideration of the fact that his lawyers have evidence showing his innocence. Raúl Hernández, member of the Organization of the Indigenous Me’phaa People (OPIM), was incarcerated in 2008, accused of murdering an army informant. He was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by AI because of his wrongful imprisonment.

Finally, the leader of the Popular Organization of Producers of Guerrero (OPPEG), Luis Enriquez Olivares, reported that 15-years after the slaughter of Aguas Blancas, a rally will be convened commemorating massacre on the days of June 27th and 28th with 25 organizations attending. The event starts June 27 with a political-cultural event and will continue the next day with a caravan that will end with an offering of flowers and holding a mass for the fallen.